Leadville Depot

[Keith Hayes]

The soffit is ready to paint.

I was on the verge of gluing it in place when I realized it would be easier to paint separately.

You have to get down pretty low to see the brackets and these scribed soffit. Oh, well, I know they are there.

[Jim Courtney]

Coming along quite nicely, Keith!

Has anyone else ever completed a model of the Leadville (brick) depot, in any scale??

[Keith Hayes]

I understand that someone (Marty McGurk?) built one in styrene to illustrate how to use the material in MR years ago. I never saw the article. I believe one of our number (Mason Bogie?) has the model, which was never finished.

Leadville is a sweet little depot, devilishly complex in its simplicity. It would be an excellent subject for a commercial model, and may be an early UP prototype design  (I don't know for sure)--it was built by UP when residents of the Cloud City complained the predecessor structure was inadequate for a community of the stature of Leadville.

[Robert McFarland]

This may be one for the Leadville Shops.

[Keith Hayes]

One curious aspect about the Leadville depot is how small the freight section is given the size of the town it served. I think this points out two issues: first, the mines in and around Leadville tended not to order items on an LCL basis--they consumed explosives on a carload basis, and sent ore back the same way; second, the D&RG must have dominated the LCL market given the large size of their depot and freight house.

Photos indicate a couple barrels on the platform, but not much else.

Has anyone ever seen how mine ore cars were delivered? I wonder if a small cluster on the platform--or more likely on the ground next the to the platform--would make an interesting scene?

[Jim Courtney]

Keith wrote:

One curious aspect about the Leadville depot is how small the freight section is given the size of the town it served.


Don't forget about that huge freight house between the depot and the roundhouse.  I suspect most L-C-L freight arriving/departing Leadville on the C&S was handled there.  The depot "baggage" section was likely used for express shipments handled in baggage cars or the RPO-baggage cars.


http://digital.denverlibrary.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/p15330coll22/id/983/rec/48



Has anyone ever seen how mine ore cars were delivered? I wonder if a small cluster on the platform--or more likely on the ground next the to the platform--would make an interesting scene?

Seems more likely that they would have been unloaded at the team tracks, opposite the mainline from the depot (where the two boxcars are spotted, next to the departing passenger train, in the 1929 photo above).

S scale mine cars for your incoming freights can be purchased here: http://www.wildwestmodels.com/products/details-ore-cars.html#DP1

As the ore cars would be new, they'd look good freshly painted an industrial yellow or orange.


Just MHO,

Jim

[Keith Hayes]

Good point, Jim. The Freight House is next on the build list. I have the roof brackets and need to make the freight doors. Then there is the matter of the sign on each end.

I guess the small baggage section is more indicative of the Adams Express market share.

I have had my eye on the Wild West Models I really cars. I just have not acted on the impulse yet.

[Keith Hayes]

HEY!?!

Is the photo you attached from the day after the Denver Water Board special? Note the Denver train is parked in its usual spot just north of the depot (it is not that big a place, but why couldnt they at least spot the rear platform next to the depot?) behind the box cars spotted on the team track.

But...further north next to the freight house, there is a two-car passenger train with locomotive. The car behind the Loco appears to be a coach, not an RPO.

This suggests that the Water Board train trailed the Leadville passenger the previous day, which makes sense, as the WB train had a (presumably) open railroad ahead and could lolly gag and stop as often as necessary for photographs.

[Chris Walker]

Keith,  as much as I hate to use non-C&S pictures....

this is the only picture I've seen that showed a decent shipment.  Note the Wheel/Axlesets are removed from the Frames, in turn seperated from the Bins.  As for colour, well I've never seen period colour pictures but have the feeling that the safety colours were post-Depression or post-WW-2. So, Red Lead, Bitumen Black or Grey Lead.


http://digital.denverlibrary.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/p15330coll22/id/14778/rec/12

[Jim Courtney]

HEY!?!

Is the photo you attached from the day after the Denver Water Board special?

BINGO!  I wondered if anyone would notice our friend, the DWB inspection train, spotted down in the yard by the freight house.  From the window arrangement of the passenger cars, they look to be business cars, behind number 9.

This is a real "Where's Waldo?" type of DPL photo.  Lots of little details hiding everywhere.

You bring up a good point--was the inspection special a two day, out and back trip to Leadville, with a side trip to Alma? Or did the C&S and DWB officials with the hired photographers make it a multiday trip, laying over along the line, and as you say to lolly gag and stop as often as necessary for photographs.

Anyone know the details of the trip's itinerary??

[Jim Courtney]

Your probably right about the colors of the mine cars, Chris.

One's perceptions of how things ought to be, tend to be based on things one's seen.  Back in the 1970s, on my first trip over Fremont Pass, there at Climax was a pile of old mine cars by the side of the road.  They were painted a faded, rusted, yellow-orange, and that image has stuck in my mind since.  But as you say, that was likely post WWII (or later) industrial yellow painting conventions.

Jim

[Chris Walker]

Glad you're on board with that as well Jim.  
http://c-sng-discussion-forum.41377.n7.nabble.com/Leadville-Standpipe-tp610p801.html


While I'm thinking about it, this would be a good time to revisit an item from an older thread by Robert.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0i3Nz_lsN9U

2:25 for the Yak Tunnel mantrip.

[Chris Walker]

Keith Hayes wrote

--it was built by UP when residents of the Cloud City complained the predecessor structure was inadequate for a community of the stature of Leadville.

Yes, very "inadequate"  

(is this the sign that Robert was refering to?)


http://digital.denverlibrary.org/cdm/fullbrowser/collection/p15330coll21/id/10012/rv/singleitem

as compared with the competition...


http://digital.denverlibrary.org/cdm/fullbrowser/collection/p15330coll21/id/14452/rv/singleitem/rec/1

[Keith Hayes]

There is no competing with the Colorado Midland.

[Jim Courtney]

No, Chris, I think this is the sign Robert is referring to:


Circa late 1890s. H.H. Buckwalter photo, in Digerness, The Mineral Belt, Volume I, page 326.



But then again, he might be talking about this sign:


Circa 1915.  Otto Perschbacker photo, in Kindig, et al., The Pictorial Supplement . . ., page 297.



On the other hand, he could really be remembering this sign:


Circa 1925.  Photographer unknown, A.A. Anderson collection, in the Klingers' Highline Memories . . ., page 216.


All the sign painters, from the 1880s on, seemed to have trouble making all the lettering fit onto the sign for the "Pass'r" Depot.


And as an after thought, here is a photo of the team track being worked by a true "team" as late as the 1930s:




The sled is sitting on the depot platform track. All manner of freight cars are being unloaded -- goods from boxcars with placards, who knows what from the coal car, and perhaps reefer 111x at the left frame has the beer consignment for the "Beer Depot".

Note the wood retaining wall at the right of the prior photo. I think it was adjacent to the eastern most team track, hidden under the pile of plowed snow, and allowed ore wagons or trucks to dump loads from street level into open top cars spotted below.



Circa 1910. Don Williamson family collection, in Digerness, The Mineral Belt, Volume I, page 339.
(See correction of attribution by Rick Steele below).

And it was a handy place to spot an engine near the depot.


BTW, this is one of my favorite threads on the Forum.  Not only do we get to see Keith's progress on his S scale depot, but we are accumulating more and more info on the prototype.

[Robert McFarland]

Could teams of horses have been used for switching or moving cars?

[Keith Hayes]

We shall see if Shapeways can accomodate this complicated print for a reasonable price:

Now on to the large dormer over the Agent's Bay.

[Rick Steele]

Actually Jim,

The lower photo is from the Don Williamson collection. It was mistakenly attributed to the mythical Don Williams many years ago. The photo was given to the CRRM by Don. It was from his Grandmother's family album.

It shows Don's grandfather, who was a fireman who lived in Leadville and was later promoted to engineer. His Grandfather was killed on Boreas Pass when the 75 rolled over on him in 1936

I want to keep this straight because Don is no longer alive and I am one of the few who knows the truth of the matter.

Rick

[Jim Courtney]

Thanks for the correction, Rick.

Above all, we want to make sure that all the information here is correct, not just repeating the misstatements of the past.

Which of the gentlemen in the cab is Don's grandfather?

Jim

[Doug Heitkamp]

Ok, I'm a couple months late with this reply…..

Keith wrote: "Has anyone ever seen how mine ore cars were delivered?"

I'm surprised nobody posted this picture -



 Picture is from the Narrow Gauge Pictorial

Doug